Purple Heaven

This is one of my favourite nail art designs yet. I tried my first one stroke flower and used gem stones for the first time. 

Step 1

Apply a base coat. Paint on the base colours: white on the index, middle and little fingers; lilac on he ring finger and dark purple on the thumb. 

Step 2

Use a striping brush to apply dark coloured diagonal stripes on the index finger, and a lilac on the little finger.

Step 3

Dot on a lilac onto the middle finger with a smaller sized dotter. 

Step 4

Create a one stroke flower on one side of the ring finger. You need a one stroke brush to do this, its got a slight angle to its straight top. Make sure its damp but the excess water is wiped off. Dip the longer end in the purple and the shorter end in a white acrylic paint. Make a few brush strokes to mix the colours slightly. Make curved strokes to form each petal. I created two layers, one on top, then three petals on the bottom to finish the flower. 

Step 5

Time to apply the "gems". Have 4 lilac gems on the surface right way up and a dotting tool with a blob of topcoat at the ready. Stripe a line of topcoat down the thumb. Dip the dotting tool in topcoat and use it to pick up the gems, place them evenly down the stipe of top coat on your thumb. Using the same technique apply a silver gem to the flower where all the petals meet. 

Step 6

Apply a base coat to all the nails. 

Freehand Cow Field

I'm not going to do an in detailed tutorial for this because it has too many steps. 

Obviously I started with my base coat. I then sponged on a gradient of blue yellow and green. I gently sponged on some wispy white clouds. I then brushed on some yellow and green strokes on to the grass area. I painted on a tree. Then I painted on the cow. I sealed it all in with a top coat. 

All of it was done with nail varnish. It was quite messy so I had to tidy it up at the end with a cotton bud in nail polish remover. 

Breaking Bad Nail Art

How amazing are these? My inspiration was the up coming release of the new series of Breaking Bad (on of my favourite ever shows) on the 11th of August and a mash up of a few designs I've seen on Google Images. 

Step 1

Apply your base coat on all nails

Step 2

Apply the MUA fur effect nails on your index and little finger. Click the link to find out how: MUA Fur Effect Tutorial. You could use any textured blue nail art for that. 

Step 3 

Paint your middle and ring finger with a green paint. I used acrylics since they run less when applying a top coat so don't mess up your design. 

Step 4 

Paint your thumb with white paint.

Step 5 

Paint the lines and letters on the middle and ring finger in white. Again, I went for acrylic, though if you used green nail polish, I'd use white nail polish rather than acrylic to match. 

Step 6 

Draw Heizenberg on your thumb with black paint in the following order: hat, face shape, glasses, nose then moustache.

Step 7

Top all but the blue textured nails with a top coat to protect your design. 

Dr Who Nail Art for Manchester Comic Con

These are the nails that I wore to Manchester Comic Con. I chose to paint my nails in a nerdy fashion instead of wearing a costume. I find unless your willing to spend a lot of money on a costume it can look a bit silly, and it was unbelievably hot so I'm glad I didn't dress up. 

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy comic com too much. I'm not a big fan of cartoons or Anamai, I essentially went because Nathan (the other half) wanted to go and I heard Warwick Davis and Robot Wars were going to be there. In the end the queue for Warwick Davis was so long and hot that I thought if I stayed there long enough to get to him I'd probably faint (I tend to faint standing up in the heat for too long). I was so hot and bored that we left before Robot Wars started, it looked small and rubbish anyway, not like the cool show I remember. I think I expected it to be like what I have seen of the San Diego Comic Con, with characters from my favourite shows giving talks. It wasn't like that at all. The costumes were interesting to look at, and there were some cool memorabilia like Olivander Wands, Canvas pictures of the avengers and Game of Thrones T-shirts. I won't be going to Manchester's Comic Con again. However, if I happen to be in San Diego when Comic Con is on, I'll give that a go, I might even dress up. 

Glossy and Matte Black Nails

You will need 

• Base coat
• Black nail varnish 
• Sellotape
• Scissors
• Matte black nail varnish or matte top coat

Step 1

Use a base coat to protect your nails. I use OPI Nail Envy Matte, which can also double as a matte top coat. 

Step 2

Paint two coats of glossy black nail varnish on all your nails. 

Step 3

You can either leave it to dry COMPLETELY without a top coat, or add a fast drying top coat which should speed up the drying time but still leave it for a while to let it dry hard. 

Step 4

Cut up your Sellotape to make two equal rectangular strips. Place one on the bottom half of the nail, the edge ending in the middle and one on the top half of the nail, the edge ending in the middle but protecting the other side of the nail.  Do this to all your nails, make sure the bottoms are all protecting the same side and the tops are all protecting the same side. 

Step 5

Paint the unprotected nail with matte nail varnish. 

Step 6

Allow the matte nail varnish to touch dry, then remove the Sellotape while its not hard dry to prevent chips coming off. 

You're done!

This is a great way to jazz up a plain black nail you've had on for a couple of days before a night out. 

Rainbow Dots

Dotted nails are one of the easiest, fastest and yet eye catching nail art designs there are. This is just one of the ways to do a dotted nail. I think it looks bright and summery,  perfect for this weather. 

There are just two easy steps a dotted nail: apply a base colour (you don't even need that if you don't want), then add your dots. 

The above photo shows two sizes of dotting tool. You can get a set of 5 cheaply from amazon or ebay. The largest the ball at the end, the larger the size of the dot. You could substitute a small dotting tool for a tooth pick for certain designs. 

Pop a blob of polish on a spare piece of paper. Touch your tool to the polish as far in as it can go. Then dot on to your nail. 

Tip: Keep your tool evenly covered with polish and make sure  the pressure you use to dot onto your nail is even. This keeps the dots the same size. 

Have fun with the different colour combinations and different sized dots you can use. Keep posted for some more dotted designs. 

Tip: Search "dotted nail art" for inspiration. 

Bunny Rabbit Nail Art

Step 1 

Apply a base coat to your nails. 

This provides a good base for your nail varnish to stick to and protects your nails from staining. I go for OPI Nail Envy, I believe it helps my nails grow stronger and longer. 

Step 2 

Apply two coats of a base colour. In this case I have gone with a lilac colour. Any colour except white can be used at this stage. 

Step 3

Add a large rounded white tip to your nails. I use the nail varnish brush at this stage: make a brush stoke in the middle about a quarter up your nail, then join that stroke to the corners of your nail with a rounded stroke. This stage often needs two coats. Don't worry if it's not perfect, bunnies are fluffy anyway!

Step 4

Add two ears to each rounded tip. I use a dotting tool for this (tooth picks, or bobby pins can be used but if your interested in nails I'd invest in some dotting tools since they're about £2 from Amazon... ). I place a blob of white nail varnish on some paper, dab my dotting tool in it and dot two fairly straight lines, slightly fatter on top just off centre on the rabbit's head. 

Step 5

Add the eyes. I use a dotting tool again with a black or very dark colour. I dotted below each ear. 

Step 6 

Add the nose. I use a dotting tool with some pick. I dotted just below and between the eyes. 

Step 7

Add the pinks of the ears. I use the same pink that I used on the nose. Use a very small dotting tool to place the pink inside the white of the ears, making a small line, again, fatter on top than bottom.

Step 8

Seal in your design with a top coat. I chose Albert Bridge Top Coat by Nails Inc. 

Ombre Glitter Nails - Firey

Fiery tangerine orange and red glitter ombre nails

 Step 1 

Apply a base coat. This protects your nails from being stained. 

Advice - My personal favourite is Nail Envy. It does a great job at stopping staining, as well and helping your nails get stronger and longer. I usually apply 2 coats of nail envy. 

Wait for it to completely dry. 

Step 2

Paint on your base colour. In this look I go for Barry M Tangerine. Always apply two thin coats of your base colour, but let them dry between layers. Two thin coats lasts longer without chipping than thick coats do. 

I go for the one middle stroke, two side strokes approach. 

Tip - try leaving a small gap between your nail varnish and cuticle, it looks more professional. It's easier to do it right the first time rather than faff around with cotton buds soaked in nail varnish remover trying to clean it up. 

Step 3

This is the tricky bit so take your time. Wait till the base colour is completely dry, I'd give it 5-10 minutes. Now go to your glitter paint. I really love the variety of Barry M's glitter paints, and  £4 isn't going to break the bank. 

Scrape most of the excess glitter off the brush. Start near the end of your nail gently brushing a very thin layer of glitter onto your nail, move down until this very sparse glitter goes about half way down your nails. Top up your brush with more glitter, and cover the very tips in a really thick layer of glitter. Finally, gently match up the thick layer of glitter with the sparse glitter in the middle of your nail by gently brushing more glitter onto that area.

Step 4 

Seal your nail art in with a top coat. I use Nails inc Albert Bridge top coat. It dries in 45 seconds which is a must for me, since I cannot sit and let my nails dry without realising I need to do something (worst is going to the loo, definitely want to do that before you start painting). 

Adapting 

This look can definitely be adapted. I really like going for a white base colour and red glitter. 

Be creative! I'd love to see some other examples of this look.  

Instagram me @hattievdt